One of the easiest ways of guiding people to more of your content and accruing YouTube watch time is to share and create playlists. Not sure where to start with playlists? Watch the video below or scroll down for a step by step guide.
What Are The Benefits Of Playlists?
How many times have you started watching a video on YouTube and then continued watching the next video and the next and the next and suddenly hours have passed without you realising? I think we have all fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole.
Well, what if you could guide your viewers to more of your content instead of them watching someone elses? This is where playlists come in. First of all, you only want to create playlists that contain content that is related to each other. So for my channel I currently have 3 playlists, YouTube Tips, How To On YouTube and Business Video Making Tips. Playlists are also great for filling out your YouTube channel page as they direct new viewers to your key content.
Your Step By Step Guide To Creating Playlists
We start by heading over to your YouTube Studio and selecting the videos tab. This will give you a list of all the videos you have uploaded.
Now we go through and select the videos we want to add by ticking the box on the left of the video. The theme for this playlist is going to be content creation. So I will pick the videos related to this theme.
Once you have selected all your videos, scroll up to the black bar at the top and select ‘Add to playlist’. Any playlists you have created previously will appear here but to create a new one click ‘NEW PLAYLIST’.
Now write a catchy title for your playlist as this will appear in search results and on your channel. Then click ‘Create’ and ‘Save’.
So now you’ve created your playlist, how do you edit the video order?
On the left-hand side hover over ‘Other features’ and then select ‘playlists’. Find the playlist you want to change and select ‘Edit playlist’ on the right-hand side.
On this page, you can edit your title, add a description and change the order of your videos. You can re-order your videos by clicking and dragging each video or by using the ‘Sort by’ filter up the top. This will give you options to order the videos by ‘Most popular’ or by ‘Date uploaded’.
If you want to delete your playlist, click ‘Edit’ next to your channel name. If you click on the 3 vertical dots in the top right you can select delete playlist.
Now you have created your playlist, it is time to share it. Why would you share a playlist rather than a single video? If you share your video through a link to your playlist then your viewers are going to be more likely to watch more of your content as they are already being told what to watch next.
How To Share Playlists
This time we are starting on the YouTube homepage. On the left-hand side you will find a list of your playlists, if you can’t see the playlist that you are looking for click ‘Show more’. Clicking the playlist will bring you back to this familiar page.
Just like before we want to click the ‘Edit’ button next to your channel name/logo.
Now it’s as simple as clicking the share button at the copying the link or clicking one of the social buttons.
That’s A Wrap
So to wrap up, playlists are a great way to direct your viewers to more of your related content and increase your watch time. The more videos you produce, the more your playlists will grow, the more watch time you will accrue and the further you will move up the YouTube search results.
Are there any features you are struggling to use on YouTube? Let me know in the comments below and I will include them in future posts.